Dell, in an announcement Wednesday, plans to stop installing floppy drives on high-end Dimension computers next month and offer them only as an option.
"There"s a lot of other good alternatives to floppies these days, that"s what drove our strategy into doing this." says Dell spokesman Lionel Menchaca.
Dell believes users are moving toward newer, larger capacity technology — especially portable hard drives and rewriteable CD.
Dell brand 16-megabyte USB flash memory drives will be offered standard in Dimension"s high-end model first and the company will consider making it available on all desktops depending on customer response, Menchaca said. The keychain-sized USB drives will cost the same as floppy drives.